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Diaz, J. 1986 Toyota Levin (Suki) in lovely Okinawa, Japan

Whats going on AE86DC!? I have always been fascinated with Toyota Levins/Truenos but never really had the exposure until now. Being stationed in Okinawa, Japan has provided a lot of opportunities to get more involved in learning everything I can about the car. I am not mechanically savvy so Im learning as I go. I just recently attempted an engine swap, a 4age 16 valve for another but unfortunately things did not go as planned. So now the plan is to rebuild the motor from scratch. So any input or guidance would be greatly appreciated to make a strong 4age. But enough with me jabbering on, here are just a couple pics from old to new

Looks neat!
What motor did you try and swap to and why? What went wrong?

The 4age is a pretty bullet proof little package as is! I would simply suggest that, unless she's already broken in some way, you clean her up, replace any gaskets/ hoses or pipes that need doing and slot her back in!
A set of extractors and a new zorst to help her sound pretty and you should be good

So I did a 4AGE 16 Valve swap for another 16 valve 4AGE. The original motor had a noise emanating from the cylinder head. Kind of a metal on clanking. I took it to a shop to get it looked at and the mechanic just by hearing said that I would need a complete engine overhaul and that it would be around $3,000. Now I am not mechanically inclined but that seemed a bit extreme even considering the age of the car. So I bought the other engine from a hachi-roku owner who swapped his for 20 valve. I decided to take the challenge head on and just swap the engines out myself taking what I thought were known good pieces off of mine and completing the one in the car now. Unfortunately as you probably know things don't always go as planned. Now I have a crank seal leak, coolant leak from the heater pipe coming out of the frame of the car, and a fuel leaking from a fuel injector. fml. So now I have put the car down for a break and I will be rebuilding the one I took out of my car from scratch. in addition to taking your advice in replacing the other pieces. I have another 2 years on island, so I will take my time and do it right. That's why I wanted to know if there option for more power output out of the 4AGE.

For fairly easy cams just look at tomei poncams, or from there you can go wild and get up to 300 or more duration if you want a silly top end monster. 4ages are known to turbo well if you prefer that and there are a lot of parts available for this too. You have some interesting decisions to make.

So I did a 4AGE 16 Valve swap for another 16 valve 4AGE. The original motor had a noise emanating from the cylinder head. Kind of a metal on clanking. I took it to a shop to get it looked at and the mechanic just by hearing said that I would need a complete engine overhaul and that it would be around $3,000. Now I am not mechanically inclined but that seemed a bit extreme even considering the age of the car. So I bought the other engine from a hachi-roku owner who swapped his for 20 valve. I decided to take the challenge head on and just swap the engines out myself taking what I thought were known good pieces off of mine and completing the one in the car now. Unfortunately as you probably know things don't always go as planned. Now I have a crank seal leak, coolant leak from the heater pipe coming out of the frame of the car, and a fuel leaking from a fuel injector. fml. So now I have put the car down for a break and I will be rebuilding the one I took out of my car from scratch. in addition to taking your advice in replacing the other pieces. I have another 2 years on island, so I will take my time and do it right. That's why I wanted to know if there option for more power output out of the 4AGE.

Ok, a few more questions..
1. How much power are you hoping for?
2. What's your budget?
3. What direction do you want to take the engine, N.A, turbo?

I still think that you should tackle the problems you have first and foremost. Realistically, the issues you've mentioned are pretty minor!
Injector leak is simple, go buy some new injector seals (little orings), remove the injectors, replace them and refit. It shouldn't take more than 20min.
The coolant leak is gonna be 1 of 2 things.
1. The connecting rubber hose is damaged and needs replaced (most likely and 5min work)
2. The pipe from the heater core is damaged, this would have to be removed from under the dash and resoldered. It'll take a couple of hours all up but isn't overly difficult all said and done.
The rear main seal is the most troubling, but again, isn't overly difficult to fix! You can either take the gearbox out under the car or remove the engine again (what I'd do). Then remove the clutch and flywheel. Unbolt the RMS cover and slide that off. Pop out the seal taking note of the way that it's facing so you can put the new one back in the right way around. Be sure to clean the and then apply some new oil to the contact surfaces of the seal and block. Gently slide it into position and then tap it into place so that it sits flush then reassemble everything and you should be good to go!
If you can't tell already, I'm all for keeping the car drivable as much as possible! Take it from someone whose practically rebuilt their car from scratch but has barely driven the damn thing

Thanks for your help. To answer some of your questions:
1. How much power are you hoping for? I really do not know the capabilities of the engine but I have 3 I can build over time. So a different setup for each would be ideal. I have a set of SK engineering ITb's I would like to run on one.
2. What's your budget? The priority would be to fix the engine I have in the vehicle right now. The other two, I will build in time so this gives me an opportunity to really invest and not really be constricted to set funds. Of course as a family of four other priorities take precedence.
3. What direction do you want to take the engine, N.A, turbo? I really would love to run turbo setup but I have not seen to many 4AGE's built that way. I was told by a local here that it wasn't the preferred build. If this is not true I would like to go that route. Eventually I would like to run Gymkhana, if that gives any insight on particular direction I should be heading in.

I am taking your advice on the remedies to fix the current issues and see where that takes me. I was considering just taking the cylinder head off the engine I removed from the car to see what the clanking. In hopes it would be less troubling than the issues in the current engine but one step at a time I guess. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for your help. To answer some of your questions:
1. How much power are you hoping for? I really do not know the capabilities of the engine but I have 3 I can build over time. So a different setup for each would be ideal. I have a set of SK engineering ITb's I would like to run on one.
2. What's your budget? The priority would be to fix the engine I have in the vehicle right now. The other two, I will build in time so this gives me an opportunity to really invest and not really be constricted to set funds. Of course as a family of four other priorities take precedence.
3. What direction do you want to take the engine, N.A, turbo? I really would love to run turbo setup but I have not seen to many 4AGE's built that way. I was told by a local here that it wasn't the preferred build. If this is not true I would like to go that route. Eventually I would like to run Gymkhana, if that gives any insight on particular direction I should be heading in.

I am taking your advice on the remedies to fix the current issues and see where that takes me. I was considering just taking the cylinder head off the engine I removed from the car to see what the clanking. In hopes it would be less troubling than the issues in the current engine but one step at a time I guess. Thanks again for your help.

As far as the capabilities of the engine goes I am also unsure however I have heard of turbo builds having upwards of 200rwkw
A bit of research should show up the power figures of some other people's engine builds however.
As far as I'm aware, like turbo/supercharged setups, you will need to run aftermarket engine management if you want to get the most out of the ITB's.

Fixing the engine you have now should be relatively inexpensive from what you've described, the main factor being the time/labour required to fix the problems.
As for building an engine, well, it really depends on how crazy you wanna go

There's plenty of turbo builds getting around and they're not overly complicated. As a cult car and likely a residual effect of the initial D fanclub, keeping the car N.A is the choice for many '86 owners however if you're chasing power then there's nothing cheaper/easier than forced induction or swapping out the engine for something different.
If you do decide on the turbo route I would highly suggest sourcing an 4agze block, preferably from a 20v as they're newer and stronger than their 16v counterparts and completely interchangeable.

There's gonna be some stuff that is inevitably going to need to be done by an engine shop however there's a fair bit you can do yourself as well.

Here's a short list off the top of my head of things you can do with little to no knowledge:
- Strip the block down and take dremel to the interior removing all the burs/ casting lines.
- Take both head and block to a machine shop and get them to acid dip and crack check. Then, if all good, deck and hone the block, machine the head and re-seat valves. You can get them to install new h/duty valve springs and valve guides while they're at it.
- Stock rods and pistons are pretty solid but you can change them out for H beam rods and low/high comp pistons as you see fit.
- Replace your head bolts/studs, Conrod & flywheel bolts with ARP parts.
- Replace Main Bearings
- Replace main seals, & ensure that theres a locating bearing in rear of crank for rwd gearbox.
- Ceramic Headgasket
- Replace oil pump/ water pump as needed
- Cams to suit your application
- Adjustable cam gears
- Lightened Flywheel